In mid-June, while Ju Ming was still waiting for the official ship, Fatty Zheng left Beijing first.
The Daming Village security team that originally escorted Dean Zhu were all taken away by Fatty Zheng and sent back to the village to develop peacefully.
Little did they know that Daming Village and the Zheng family were playing smuggling.
Several merchant ships sailed from the Han River into the Golden Water, and Zhang Guangdao personally took charge of the cargo.
The merchant ships and boatmen all came from the Zheng family.
As for the goods on the ship, half came from the Zheng family and half came from Daming Village.
Zhang Guangdao looked at the mountains on both sides of the strait and asked, "Zheng Liulang has never walked here before?"
"I've never been here before. I usually take Baoxie Road. It's too dangerous here." Zheng Liulang's name is Zheng Sui, and he is Fatty Zheng's cousin.
Zhang Guangdao said with a smile: "The more dangerous it is, the greater the profit!"
The Zheng family and Daming Village teamed up for smuggling, which was purely out of necessity and forced by the imperial court.
First, the war in the northwest has been dragging on for a long time. In order to raise money and food, the imperial court ordered the patrols to strengthen anti-smuggling. Since Baoxie Road and Chencang Road are the main trade routes out of Sichuan, smuggling inspections are now very strict. The Zheng family's smuggling route was instantly eliminated.
strangled to death.
Second, the tea makers of the Zheng family have been bribed, and the green tea frying method has been leaked. More and more green tea are produced. The local fried tea market is becoming saturated, and it is difficult to export legally, so it can only be sold through smuggling.
Otherwise, you will have to go to the Tea Horse Company and suffer layer upon layer of exploitation due to tea taxes and excessive taxes.
"stop!"
The fleet was stopped by a group of officers and soldiers.
Zheng Sui, however, was not afraid at all, and angrily said, "Do you dare to block Duke Yuan Zhang and Zhu Tanhua's ship?"
The officers and soldiers looked at each other, not even daring to ask further questions, and quickly let him go.
In fact, these are mine supervisors.
Since the gold mines were exhausted, they set up private cards to illegally collect taxes from passing business travelers, without any tax collection rights in their hands.
One side is engaged in smuggling trade, and the other side is illegally collecting taxes, so it is better not to cause conflict.
Who in Yangzhou doesn't know that the Zhu family's father and son are the most popular people in front of the emperor.
The fleet passed the private card with great swagger. After one day of sailing, they could no longer move forward.
They also hired a smuggler as a guide, who said: "There is a village ahead with only twenty or thirty households, which can barely supplement some food."
Villagers from the Ming Dynasty and workers from the Zheng family got off the boat one after another, carrying tea and food on their backs.
Zhang Guangdao carried a long gun in his hand and a standard bow and arrow on his back.
Zheng Sui also has a sword hanging on his waist, ready to fight at any time.
Each of them brought more than ten combatants, responsible for dealing with bandits in the mountains.
Ordinary personnel each carry nearly a hundred kilograms of cargo. Combatants also carry forty or fifty kilograms.
The further north you go, the harder the road becomes.
Moreover, the valley is deep and densely forested, and there are countless thieves in the mountains. If you are not careful, you will be attacked.
Small businessmen and hawkers walking along the Tangluo Road must gather at least thirty or fifty people before they dare to hug each other and go on the road together.
In this vast mountainous area, there are no officials even to collect agricultural taxes, presenting a primitive state of anarchy.
After two days of trekking through mountains and rivers, Zhang Guangdao looked ahead and suddenly said: "Let's all stop and rest. We can continue after we are full."
The guide flattered: "Brother Zhang has a good eye. A few miles ahead, there is a large village called Anjiaping. The people in the village, half civilians and half bandits, often come here to set up ambushes and robberies. One or two miles ahead, the valley is narrow, but the mountains are not
It’s steep. Villagers often lie in wait on the mountain, rush down and block the caravan from the front and back.”
Zheng Sui asked: "Can I enter the village?"
The guide explained: "You can enter the village. As long as you pass this ambush site, the villagers will not start robbing anymore, but will exchange things with the business travelers. The private salt I prepared in advance can come in handy here. One pound
Salt can be exchanged for a lot of food. Vendors who often walk this road usually give some extra salt or cloth, which is considered as leaving a sum of money to buy the road, so that they can be safe next time they come back."
"Are they killing people indiscriminately when selling goods?" Zhang Guangdao asked.
The guide said: "As long as there is no resistance, they will not kill people. After all, they rely on the mountains to eat. The killings are too ruthless. How can there be traders here? The bandit leader in the village is called Qu Fangping, known as Qu Bodhisattva. It means that he has the heart of a Bodhisattva.
They never kill them all, and will leave some food rations for the robbed vendors."
Zhang Guangdao smiled and said, "It's strange that the one who robbed the Dao actually calls himself a Bodhisattva."
After eating, drinking, and resting for a while, Zhang Guangdao gave the order to move forward.
He asked the Zheng family's combat personnel to be responsible for protecting the caravan at the front and rear, and he led the Daming Village security team to climb the nearby mountains to search the mountains and open a road.
The security team was armed with shields and weapons such as knives or guns. They did not carry wolf mills or the like because it was inconvenient to travel through mountains and rivers.
Someone was standing guard on the mountain, and while they were resting, they called bandits from the village to ambush them.
The leader of the bandits, Qu Fangping, was lying among the grass and trees, looking at the rattan soldiers below, and muttered: "The idea is a bit tricky, with shields, swords and guns, it's not cost-effective to fight hard. Go back to the village, and we'll entertain you!"
The village bandits quietly withdrew, and finally escaped without any danger.
Zhang Guangdao led people over the mountain col, and suddenly saw a clear view ahead, a large flat valley with fertile fields everywhere.
When he led the caravan to the entrance of the village, Zhang Guangdao shouted loudly: "Zhang Guangdao, Xixiang, I am passing by Guibao Land to escort the goods. Please ask Bodhisattva Qu to say a few words in person!"
Qu Fangping just turned 30 this year, but he has more than ten years of robbery experience. Two or three generations of his ancestors have been doing this. This guy didn't have any weapons in his hands. He was dressed like a peasant. He held his hands and said with a smile: "So he is a good guy from Xixiang.
, only passing by once, or do we have to deal with him often?"
Zhang Guangdao said: "I pass by it every year, and today I came to pay my respects to the pier."
"It's easy to say," Qu Fangping immediately promised. "The food in my village is more expensive, so you don't have to buy it. Every time you pass by, you must leave twenty kilograms of salt and twenty bolts of cloth."
Zhang Guangdao shook his head: "I'm just an errand. The money for traveling is too much and I can't decide what to do. How about ten pounds of salt and ten bolts of cloth? I'll also buy some grain, so I'm sure you'll make a profit."
Qu Fangping carefully looked at their shields, swords and guns, thought seriously for a moment, and asked: "Okay, but next time I come over, can I bring some fairy grain seeds?"
"Fairy food?" Zhang Guangdao had a strange expression.
Qu Fangping said: "I heard from a passing Yangzhou merchant that there was a Duke Yuanzhang in Xixiang County who got immortal food from overseas immortals and could harvest it even in barren mountains. You are from Xixiang, so I think you should be able to harvest it.
Get the fairy grain seeds."
Corn and sweet potatoes have been popularized in Yangzhou and Xingyuan Prefecture, but they have not been completely spread to every village.
Many homesteaders are looking forward to it, hoping to get some seeds.
The guide suddenly laughed: "So that Bodhisattva Qu will know that what we are escorting this time is Duke Yuan Zhang's tea."
Qu Fangping asked in surprise: "Dong Yuanzhang is a disciple of the Immortal, is he also engaged in business?"
Zhang Guangdao said: "Next time I pass by, I promise to bring you fairy food."
Qu Fangping said: "If the fairy food is really that magical, you can come and go from now on, but I don't want half a penny to pay for travel."
The two parties reached a verbal agreement on this, and Zhang Guangdao even went into the village alone and visited Qu Fangping's home, leaving the caravan to rest outside the village.
Qu Fangping admired such courage.
Zhang Guangdao was obsessed with rebellion. When Ju Ming left Daming Village, he had a long talk with him for half the night.
Two guys with long bones on the back of their heads exchanged ideas about starting a war.
This Tangluo Road was their planned route out of the north. The reason was simple: not a single soldier was stationed from Guanzhong to Yangzhou.
You only need to send more than a thousand elite troops to fight directly from Yangzhou to Yuxi (Zhouzhi) and capture the county seat by surprise. Then, you can look back and follow the large troops on Baoxie Road to attack Guancheng in the Xie Valley from front to back.
.
If you can successfully recruit troops in Yuxi, you don't have to go back to Xiegu to meet the friendly forces, you can go directly to Chang'an!
When he was appointed governor of Yangzhou, Wen Tong once went to the imperial court and requested to garrison hundreds of troops in Ziwu Valley and Luo Valley. Firstly, he would strictly investigate smuggling, and secondly, he would exterminate bandits.
But the imperial court turned a deaf ear and had no plans to garrison troops.
Since he was going to take the Tangluo Road to kill Guanzhong, there was another hero on the way. Zhang Guangdao decided to make friends with him and drag Qu Fangping to rebel together.
Hearing that Zhang Guangdao was a member of Duke Yuan Zhang and that he was quite courageous, Qu Fangping also wanted to make friends with him.
The two of them drank in the village. At first they talked about Duke Yuan Zhang and the immortal food, and then they talked about martial arts with guns and sticks.
As they chatted in the alley, Qu Fangping reminded: "I'm easy to talk to here, but be careful when you go to Nanshan. There are many thieves there, some in groups of three to five, some in groups of dozens, and there are also sergeants who fled into the mountains. They don't do much.
To be continued...